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Ballistic (GB)

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"This addictive puzzle game requires players to protect the centre of the "loop" from a never-ending flow of coloured balls. The balls feed onto a spiral shaped belt that converges in the middle. If a ball reaches the centre of the loop, the game" „

Advantages

Disadvantages

Excellent

The title "Ballistic" does not particularly infer anything to the player on first glance. Without the assistance of box visuals, I would have assumed this to be something involving pinball or perhaps a "Marble Madness" type title. Despite the questionable name, "Ballistic" delivers an exceptional puzzle game with high replay value.

Gameplay is somewhat similar to those familiar with "Bust a Move" or other bright puzzle titles. A never ending chain of colourful balls appears from the player's bottom right hand side of the screen, and the player must guide matching balls to create a series of three identical images. This threesome will remove the series from play and allow an additional few seconds of thinking time to prepare for the continual arrival of other balls. The game ends when the chain grows too large and meets in the centre of the screen where the player controls his or her "shooter" of sorts. There is no real objective to this game other than simply keeping oneself in play. The producers of this title also included a second player option via game-link cable which could also be a high selling point of "Ballistic". Controls are simply guiding the "shooter" with the arrow keys and releasing balls into play with the "A" button.

Graphics are bright, vivid and seem to make full use of the available technology which the Gameboy Color possesses. I did not notice any areas of production flaw but that is perhaps because I was so engrossed with gameplay that I did not have time to notice any flaw; The game, while initially appearing slow, becomes a fast challenge mentally.

Audio seems to be appropriate for this game. I did not particularly enjoy the default music that was present throughout the game but did not find this to be an annoyance, either. There is a light "pop" noise that accompanies every release of ball made by the player which was acceptable for its purpose.

"Ballistic" is a highly recommended title for those who dabble in puzzle games, and even those who don't as it quickly becomes an absorbing title to enjoy. I would also think that the second player option could further boost replay value if one was in the presence of another opponent.